So You Thought You Could Dance, VI

This week's SYD was only an hour long, prefaced by a re-showing of last week's results show. Since I never watch the results shows and also hadn't looked up last week's results, I was glad to have this amusement as I slaved over a hot stove, making marmalade.

Comfort and Courtney were in the bottom two girls -- good choice, America.

Will and Twitch were in the bottom two boys -- you're an idiot, America.

Seriously, this was Mark and Comfort's time, and America got it only half right (which is failing): Comfort went home and, heartbreak of heartbreaks, so did Will.

When asked what had happened to cause Will's premature SYD demise, Nigel said he couldn't know, but that it was possible America had assumed that he was so good that he would obviously be safe.

That's my best guess as well.

(Note on weirdness: Comfort and Will are also noun-names, and the only ones on the show. Weird, right?)

At any rate, Will was the most proficient male dancer in terms of technical skill and training, with the best solo routines, and having him off the show makes the end top-guy result a toss-up for the remaining excellent guys, Joshua and Twitch. If the teenybopper contingent is still hung up on Mark after this week, he may make it into the top four.

But if Mark wins the entire competition, there goes all my respect for SYD. (And I have an absurd amount.) I'm not even sure I'd watch again next year.

(No, no, I would, SYD! Don't worry -- you know how I feel. Now let's never fight again.)

So began the week of top 6, the semifinal round: Chelsie and Twitch, Joshua and Katee, and Mark and Courtney.

Mark and Courtney started out with a Viennese waltz, which guest judge Alan Shankman loved. (He loved everything all night.) Nigel called it "romantic," but I was happy with it, figuring Mark and Courtney's time to go had come.

They pulled a jazz routine second, though, and it was perfectly choreographed by Sonja (sp?) to play to Mark's strengths. Courtney is also a contemporary dancer, and the routine was engaging and strange in a way that made me stop stirring (the marmalade) and stare. If Mark and Courtney don't go home tonight, it will be because of this routine.

Katee and Joshua danced a contemporary routine and made me rethink my entire position on partners. Originally, when Katee had drawn Will, another technically proficient dancer, I'd cheered for them, thinking that now they would both be able to shine free of their old partners.

It's true that Will fared much better post-Jessica, and that Katee did a great job, both with Will and with Twitch last week.

But none of the other pairs are Katee and Joshua.

Perhaps their initial pairing and the up-and-down nature of the other pairs in the earlier weeks of competition made it hard for me to pick up on the extraordinary nature of this duo, but even with the contemporary dance they did in the first week I watched, I didn't recognize the greater-than-the-sum-of-the-partners aspect of these two together.

Alan Shankman, pro-everything, broke out the big-gun commentary for this routine: Along with Tyce Diorio, the choreographer, Alan said, "You guys just became the holy trinity of SYD."

The contemporary routine, which features mid-air-arrested jumps and all sorts of intricate and interesting acrobatics -- but with heart -- was so impressive -- and despite that it was danced to "All By Myself" by Celine Dion, no less -- that I groaned aloud when Katee and Joshua pulled paso doble for their second dance.

The one with the bullfighter, I thought. I can't stand that one.

But this was the best paso doble I've ever seen.

I have to say that Joshua is not my type. He's strong, relatively short and stocky, where I tend to prefer a taller, thinner physique -- even in a paso doble, where power is key, I thought a taller man would be preferable.

But even Dmitri, very tall, very well-built, ripped-his-shirt-off-whenever-he-got-onstage Russian ballroom dancer Dmitri, from a few seasons ago didn't overshadow Joshua. And Katee was superb as his cape.

Twitch and Chelsie danced mambo. The judges raved over Chelsie, as always in Latin dances, and paid respect to Twitch's efforts, though Nigel mentioned a wardrobe malfunction along with Twitch's sub-Chelsie performance: "You lost a bow," he said to Chelsie, "but you lost another beau in the middle as well."

Their second routine was a hip-hop dance choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon, who had them cavorting around the stage as "mad composers" seeking to possess the wand that would control the orchestra -- and each other. It was such an entertaining routine that I didn't notice whether Chelsie was keeping up with Twitch or vice-versa. Definitely a highlight of the night, though Katee and Joshua's reunion stole my heart.

And, if I did that sort of thing, would have stolen my votes.

Get it right this week, America.

**Gah! I've been relying on the blogger at BSYTYCD to give me results, and s/he's quit! I have no idea who was eliminated tonight!!